


Everybody Here Wanted Something More

by kaghani



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: (at least... getting there), Alternate Universe, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 02:09:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4901488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaghani/pseuds/kaghani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra is a newcomer to the city, and things aren't going as wonderfully as she'd expected. And then, she 'meets' her neighbor on the other side of the paper-thin wall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everybody Here Wanted Something More

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first AU I've written and managed to keep under a bazillion words. Yaay! 
> 
> "Paper thin walls AU", inspired by tumblr post here (http://bigspoonkorra.tumblr.com/post/130103650349/can-you-imagine-a-we-live-in-adjacent-apartments).
> 
> Characters are not mine, etc. Enjoy!

“Excuse me?” The voice, quiet and muffled as it is, has got an apprehensive edge to it, but somehow manages to carry a certain gentleness and calm. And it’s accompanied by a knock…from the far wall of Korra’s bedroom. 

 _Shit_. This is exactly what Korra needs right now, isn’t it?

In a level state of mind, Korra might have been embarrassed. She might have gulped down some air and steeled her voice and apologized for being an inconsiderate asshole. She might have even put in a reminder on her phone to stop by the bakery next to the gym and pick up the sampler tray of cupcakes for this poor neighbor, who has the misfortune of sharing this one-ply, piece of crap wall with the raging bundle of emotions Korra so often becomes these days. 

Alas – a level state of mind is not what makes a woman scream, cry, and tape a photograph of her team captain on the mini punching bag in her room and pummel the shit and the sand out of it…at two in the morning.

“What?” Korra spits, punctuating the question with a fist in Mako’s stupid,  _angled eyebrows_. “I didn’t ruin your beauty rest, did I?”

Punch-punch, punch.  _Thud-thud, thud._

“Um…no, not really.” The voice is much more hesitant now, but dammit, it’s so steady and calm, Korra wants to punch it, too. She settles for slamming her knuckles into the crinkled mess of paper where Mako’s nose and mouth used to be. 

_You’re such a drag on this team, Korra! I don’t know where your head is, but I’m done pulling all your weight! One more match like that and you’re done!_

Punch, punch-punch, punch-punch. Punch-roundhouse.

A sob catches in her throat, but she quells it with a small roar and another punch. She swipes her arm across her face to catch the tears before attacking again.

“Actually,” the voice, more deliberate now, cuts into Korra’s thoughts again, “I was awake.” 

Korra pauses, bounces on her toes.  _Make your move, lady_.  _Make my day_.

“I’m in the middle of a conference call with a marketing firm from New York. It’s afternoon there, but Americans can be so –”

“Oh, yeah?” Punch, punch-punch, punch, punch! “Am I disturbing your little corporate tea party? Would you lose your job because some little chump who thought he was better than you –” punch “– would find any excuse to get rid of you and RUIN EVERYTHING YOU EVER GAVE UP AND CAME ALL THE WAY INTO THE CITY FOR?”

She can’t stop it now. The tears and the rage and her sore knuckles drive her into a fury, and she’s all but tearing the canvas apart with her teeth when she attacks it this time. 

It’s another few minutes before she drops to the floor, exhausted, head squeezed between her knees.

“Look,” Korra calls, to the woman, her neighbor. Her voice is gravelly and quiet from the screaming and the exhaustion. “Go ahead and report me to the super. It looks like I’m done in this town, anyway."

“What? No, it’s not your fault!”

Korra, shocked momentarily out of her self-pity, turns sends an incredulous look at the wall. “It’s…not?”

“It’s these walls! It's like they’re made of paper.”

Korra’s speechless. She leans back on her elbows and closes her eyes, trying to process this. She’s been throwing a very loud tantrum for nearly an hour – in an unacceptable hour – and somehow…this isn’t her fault.

“I know.” Korra starts speaking before her brain gives her the okay. “Like, one-ply toilet paper.”

There’s a deafening moment of silence when Korra thinks she could pack her bags and hitchhike back to her parents’ mountain home that very minute. But the next moment, Korra hears a peal of laughter. She feels like she can breathe again – not just from relief, but because the last time she’d made someone laugh like that was months ago. Back at home.

The giggles fade. “I have to get back to the call soon, but I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for whatever you’re going through. It sounds rough, but…you seem like a really tough person. If anyone can get through this, it’s you.”

 _What_? Is this lady serious? How do you sound so sincere in your confidence about someone  _who’s face you haven’t seen_?

“And…it would be a real shame if you left. I’d like to get to know you.”

In all of Korra’s life… – what is this woman going on about? 

“Are you still there?”

“Yes,” Korra manages, throat raw and head whirling from the craziness of this afternoon, misery from tonight, and the bizarre-ness of  _this_ , whatever it is.

“I’m Asami, by the way.” The voice drops to an even gentler lull than before, and Korra feels the late hour and weariness - both physical and emotional - hit her like a ton of bricks. She _needs_ to get in her bed and sleep for the next century.

Korra finds herself dragging her body off the floor, peeling off her bra, picking up a clean shirt from the basket, and crawling into bed.

 _If anyone can get through this, it’s you._ Korra, for the first time in her life, doubted this during the past couple of months. What if she doesn't? What if she gets kicked off the team, robbed of her dream?

“I’m Korra.” She says, yawning. Her eyelids feel like magnets, and before they close, Korra thinks she should turn off the light.

The last thing she hears before she's out is: "Good night, Korra."

* * *

Korra’s brain has sprouted a pair of fists – no, at least a dozen pairs of fists, and it’s treating the inside of her skull like a punching bag. 

_Thump, thump, thump._

And not just that – there’s a siren gone off inside of there, and also someone’s calling her name. 

_Korra? Thump, thump, thump. Korra? RRRR-RRRR-RRRR! Thump, thump. Korra! Korra? RRR-RRRR-RRR –_

“Hmm?” Korra stirs. It’s that feeling when you want to do something so you can sleep more comfortably, but you’re too sleepy to put a finger on exactly what it is that you should do. And you don’t even know if it’s worth it because all you want to do is fucking  _sleep_.

_RRRR-RRRR-RRRR!_

_Thump, thump, thump._  “Korra!”

“Shit!” Korra exclaims, forcing her eyes open and groping around for her phone. She manages to get it off her nightstand, but her vision is too tunnel-y and her fingers are too unresponsive for her to get a grip and turn the damned thing off…

 _There_. Korra throws an arm over her eyes, panting with relief like she’d just gotten away from the bogeyman. The freaking alarm. Korra’s always been a heavy sleeper, but Naga would always wake first and treat Korra to the fur and slobber wake-up-call. Korra’d been heartbroken when every apartment building within her affordability range had a strict ‘No Pets’ rule.

She lays there for a bit, and she’s about to nod off, when some conscious part of her mind picks up on the sound of bed-springs coiling under weight. It’s got to be from the other side of the wall.

A wave of mortification nearly has Korra nauseous. The… _events_ of last night come back to her and she nearly squirms with the effort to not kick herself. She does, however, allow herself to grab the pillow under her head and smack herself in the face with it, repeatedly.

How could she be such a jerk? And throw one obnoxious display of assholery after another at this poor neighbor?

Asami, was her name. Poor Asami.  _It’s not your fault_ , she’d said,  _It’s these walls_.

Oh, god. Why did she have to be so nice? Korra knows plenty of nice people, understanding people. But none of them had ever taken any shit from her. Especially not since she came into the city; every wrong turn, every accidental step into the street or second spent too long ordering coffee inspires such revulsion toward her in people who had no clue who she was!

And this…complete stranger, this  _Asami_ , made all sorts of excuses to absolve her of blame, even after Korra’d hurled such disgusting verbal abuse at her! How could she even begin to excuse herself? Was this woman even real?

On another – ugh, much-wanted – wave of embarrassment, Korra realizes that her stupid alarm must have woken Asami. She’d been up later than Korra, getting back to the conference call after Korra hauled herself off to bed – snotty, exhausted, and without having turned off the lights. 

“Uh.” Korra’s voice is thick with sleep. She clears it a few times, willing herself to bear the gross taste of her mouth. “Uh, hey, Asami? You awake?”

It takes a second, but Asami responds in a long sigh, voice cracking from disuse overnight. “Mmmmmmmmm….” 

Korra feels the corners of her mouth tugging up, and she finds it makes the whole idea of owning up to her shit a comfortable, easy thing. Even if it’s some pretty awful shit. 

“Asami, I’m really sorry. For last night…for this morning. For the night’s before, whenever I was being obnoxious. I’m really sorry for being a jerk, too.“

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Asami sighs, “These walls are made of paper, remember?”

“Yeah, but…still. I promise I can behave a lot better. Can…is it okay if I bring something over later? I make a mean enchilada.”

“Hmmmm?” Asami sounds a little spacey, and it’s so…cute. 

Korra’s heart warms, and like so many other times when she’s full of comfort, she speaks without thinking, voice slipping into a playful, teasing tone. “If you still wanna get to know me so bad, that is.”

Oops. Was that – is she  _flirting_ with her amazingly nice neighbor, with whom her only interactions have made her look like some kind of reptile? She hears blood roaring in her ears. Oh, god, what does Asami even think of her?

But of course, Asami giggles sleepily. If Korra learned anything about her last night, it’s that Asami’s the most understanding person Korra’s probably ever going to meet. “Sure. That sounds great.” Asami says.

“Okay,” Korra says, chuckling. “Sooo…should I just, knock on the wall? As a heads up?”

“I’m free at 3:45.” Her voice gets muffled at the end, like she stuck her face into the pillow. 

“Okay. 3:45 it is.”

“Korra?” There’s a little urgency in her voice.

“Yeah?” Korra asks, a bit apprehensive, herself. 

“Please let me sleep now.”

Korra laughs. “Sure thing.”

She gets out of bed and drags her protesting back into a spine-popping stretch. She shuts off the light, opens her blinds and her window, and lets the air in.

Korra’s been so restless since she’d come into the city, and she gets what Katara’d told her, now: “You won’t believe how lonely you could feel around so many people.”

At nights, she’d call her parents and give them the sugar-and-spice-and-everything-nice answers.  _I’m having a great time here. No, I’m not staying out_ all night _, mom. I made a lot of friends out here, it’s great. Yeah, my teammates and I are getting along real well…_

Korra only just realizes what a heavy heart she’d been carrying as she slips a light jacket over her sports bra, laces up her running shoes, and stashes her wallet into the side compartment for enchilada supplies, feeling anchored and free all at once. Losing her spot on the team because of Mako being completely unfair – awful as it would be – doesn’t seem like the end of the world, anymore.

On her way out, she glances at Asami’s door. It’s ridiculous, how in-tune Korra thinks she is with Asami’s emotions, but Korra feels like she understands why Asami’s so compassionate, now.

She smiles, and then takes off down the stairs and into the mid-morning fog of the city.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> If you don't mind giving me some feedback, what did you think of my characterizations? 
> 
> Also - If you think I didn't tag this well enough for warnings, let me know.


End file.
